Evolve: Obama gay marriage quotes

President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced his support for gay marriage, addressing the issue for the first time personally since Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage and Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced his support of gay marriage on Monday. Here’s a look back at some of Obama’s quotes on gay marriage:

1. “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages,” while running in 1996 for Illinois state Senate, in a written response to a questionnaire from Chicago’s Outlines gay newspaper.

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2. “Undecided,” while running for re-election to state Senate in 1998, in response to an Outlines questionnaire asking, “Do you favor legalizing same-sex marriage?”

3. “I am a fierce supporter of domestic-partnership and civil-union laws. I am not a supporter of gay marriage as it has been thrown about, primarily just as a strategic issue. I think that marriage, in the minds of a lot of voters, has a religious connotation. I know that’s true in the African-American community, for example. And if you asked people, ‘should gay and lesbian people have the same rights to transfer property, and visit hospitals, and et cetera,’ they would say, ‘absolutely.’ And then if you talk about, ‘should they get married?’, then suddenly…” - Feb. 2, 2004, while an Illinois state Senator, in an interview with Chicago gay newspaper, the Windy City Times.

4. “I was reminded that it is my obligation not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society, but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided,” while a U.S. Senator, writing in his memoir in 2006, “The Audacity of Hope.”

5. “The government has to treat all citizens equally. I am a strong supporter not of a weak version of civil unions, but of a strong version, in which the rights that are conferred at the federal level to persons who are part of the same-sex union are compatible. When it comes to federal rights, the over 1,100 rights that right now are not being given to same-sex couples, I think that’s unacceptable.” - Aug. 9, 2007, while running for president, at a Democratic primary debate sponsored by the HRC and the LOGO network.